Here it is cleaned up with a hairdo makeover for the elf woman. I wetted some of the colored pencil strokes to blend them on her face. Modified her facial features to beautify and give more contour. Blocked in some crystals. Colored in some areas. Outlined some. I like it so much at this stage, I don't want to do too much more. I'd like to darken the cave background so that it creates contrast for the crystals. I plan to add color to oil lantern and maybe add details to her clothing. I was thinking of black lace for her neck band and hands, but I like the whiteness. I need dark areas in the cave walls if I'm going to dot them with small crystal sparkles.

The concept: An elven woman in a cave. She holds a candle lantern. The lantern light shines on crystal studded walls, making a dazzling display. The play of light against darkness in the candle-lit room is planned to be a key feature. It will be developed at the end of the process. For now, I'm laying out composition. Maybe she needs a pet dragon on her right shoulder?

The beginning stages of my artwork for this month's Enchanted Visions theme. I'll give it a title soon. I have a few possibilities. It parallels my external situation in some ways. I've been visiting Sacred Chambers for personal spiritual purposes. I'm thinking of calling it Secret Chambers. Or I can just make it more generic and call it Crystal Cave. To be decided.

To bring it to this stage, I did a rough graphite sketch onto 11" x 14 " sketch paper. The outer dimension of this represents that size. The blue rectangles are tape. They attach a smaller piece of paper onto which I sketched a revision of the elven woman's face. In an earlier version, her face was narrower. I widened it.

The current theme at Monthly Fantasy Art Auctions is Steampunk Fairy. It got me thinking about Victorian lace for her hands and neck. I researched fingerless gloves yesterday. I liked the ideas that came to me to make the lace black. I added small indications to her hands and neck area of lace. I plan to refine those areas to show fingerless lace gloves & a lace choker at her neck. I'd like to extend the lace choker to be attached to the V-neck of her clothing. I'll play with it until I get desired results. I'm thinking of make the lace color black, but that might change to dark green or blue. A vision I had of the color harmony in the final artwork was in burnt sienna, blues, and greens. I still have to land on what materials I'll use. Maybe colored pencil combined with paint and alcohol marker pens. I haven't picked the paint yet. Leaning toward acrylic, but maybe watercolor or water-based oils.

I'm very pleased to have just been unanimously welcomed by the board of  fantasy artist peers as a member of the Enchanted Visions project. Members each submit their own artwork to be displayed at the Enchanted Visions website according to a monthly theme. About 7 of my completed works are now available for viewing at the Enchanted Visions - aka EV - website. They can be seen by visiting the EV website link given below. More coming.

Enchanted Visions was started by 2 highly acclaimed fantasy artists, Amy Brown and Jessica Galbraith. Monthly theme challenges were formed as a basis to help stimulate the artists to create artwork in a fun setting. The artwork was published on a website devoted to this. It's now open to an expanded list of participants thanks to them and equally great fantasy artist Coriander Shea. Coriander, another great EV artist, Lisa Cree, and possibly others I don't have info about, have worked as admins for the group website and other activities. Coriander recently resumed the distinguished role as head administrator for EV. Lisa remains active as an EV artist.

Rebecca Brogden Nance and Mayumi Ogihara, also exceptional EV artists, have formed an EV Deviant Art group. Its primary purpose is for showcasing EV member artwork at DeviantArt.com. Rebecca and Mayumi publish member artwork there based on the same monthly themes.

Many thanks to Amy, Jessica, Coriander, Rebecca, Mayumi, Lisa, Monika, and all those who have gone before for all your wonderful work and dedication.

Links to the growing list of EV's lively internet activities:

LOL - When I started on this story, I had no conception of how many people are working behind the scenes. Here's the entire current list of the EV artists who voluntarily hold positions on behalf of the whole group. Each of them is also an EV artist. Thanks to all of you.

ENCHANTED VISIONS ADMIN LIST

Katerina Koukiotis- EV Pinterest

Monika Holloway- EV part of Monthly Fantasy Art Auctions, shares EV MFAA items to EV fanpage, keeps an eye out for new artists in MFAA

Rebecca Brogden Nance- EV Deviant Art group, keeps an eye out for new artists on Deviantart

Mayumi Ogihara- EV Deviant Art group, keeps an eye out for new artists on Deviantart

Maria Gonzalez- Monthly theme folders on EV fanpage, posts periodically on EV fanpage, misc. EV fanpage tasks

Alexandra Eff- EV Twitter, keeps an eye out for new artists on FB & elsewhere

Catherine Swinford- Miscellaneous tasks, Web help, Keeps an eye out for new artists

Coriander Shea- EV website, EV Member Artist group, EV merchandising, whatever else needs done

Such an honor to have my paintings at theme pages alongside some great fantasy artists' work. I'll be hanging the original in The Katbird Shop, Schenectady Art Society - SAS - gallery today. Stop by to see it among art by other SAS members at 425 Liberty St. , Schenectady, NY after today. Here's how a print of the finished watercolor painting looks with white border. The finished watercolor painting is 16" x 20" on archival Arches Watercolor board. It will be available at the store ready to hang, mounted in a wood frame w/ a metallic champagne gold finish.

 Here's a pencil sketch I did as a draft for picture pendant. This is not available as shown due to my time limitations. BUT...

...You can get the even nicer version & its many variations in silver or gold, as a locket, round or square at Zazzle.

A sneak peak at what I'm working on as part of my first auction offers at Monthly Fantasy Art Auction. the auction takes place on Facebook. New work is offered the 5th of every month. Anyone can join and bid or choose Buy Now options.

The bright blue border is tape that comes off when the work is finished.

Congratulations to the winner of this contest, Phyllis Harris!! You will receive a copy of this card in the mail in a few days. Blank on the inside. Back has text shown on bottom - minus the copyright notice, which I forgot until after I printed it. You can tell eveyone I said so, Phyllis. I'm sure they're interested. ;) The picture is actually printed upside down, not how it's shown to allow for it being center folded. Ya-a-a-ay, Phyllis! I hope you'll like it. Thank you for your contribution to helping me get the final version of this finished. I listened to your opinion. I needed another set of eyes to take a fresh look at it and you very nicely responded. And it won Second Prize at the Fine Art America contest yesterday, June 3, 2013. So now you can tell that to whomever you'd like, too. Maybe that's a little more interesting. Let's hope so. :))

This is what people who came here from my Facebook page saw:

Vote and win a prize. Open to all. Randomly selected winner gets a free blank note card with a picture of this dragon on it. All you have to do is leave a comment saying which version of these is your favorite and why.

Vote for which one you like best. Vote by number. If you like more than one
equally, vote that way by saying what you think. Enter your votes as a 
comment below.

7) This and the next one were added a day later. I think I like this the best. It's always good to look away for awhile. I took out the rainbow colors in the shamrock. I seemed too busy this AM with the rainbow in it in addition to being in the dragon's belly. I always see the overall appearance better when I break for a day or more and get a fresh look.

8) Everything's the same  as #7, except 2 changes. Lighter color and reticulation, aka, it looks speckled.

Same as #2, except heavier eye feature.

Same as #1, except lighter eye feature

No Eye Feature, Stronger Colors Than #4.

No Eye Feature, Lighter Colors than #3

Reticulated, i.e., it looks like it's speckled. Same as #6, except heavier, or stronger colors. 

Same as #5, except paler colors.

I'm very pleased to announce that my painting, Vision Quest, was personally chosen today by a very distinguished fellow artist, Frederick Jinkins, to be featured on his popular Fine Art America group page. It's a very special group devoted to art by many multi-talented artists. They work in a variety of media. The purpose of this group is to assemble the artwork of artists whose goal is to paint or to create other forms of artwork each and every day.

A selection of prints of the Vision Quest painting may be ordered here.

Once you land on the page, you can view more by clicking on the artwork. It will take you to details on the particular piece. Or, use the tabs at the top to find out more about group members, and perhaps even to join the group.

About Frederick Jinkins
Frederick, or Fred Jinkins, as he is known to his many friends, has established a following as a great artist of distinction in many art forms over a period of several years. He's my very special friend and colleague, a  prolific creator who has deftly refined his skills at creating in photography, watercolor, oil, and digital art. His artwork has been featured in many art shows and galleries. He has been a student of some well known and nationally known artists in the US. His artwork and photography have been in several galleries and published around the world. 

From my personal point of view, the characteristic that strikes anyone immediately about Frederick is how steadfast  and unshakable is his gentle, friendly approach to all people and everything within his reach. His wonderful outlook gives  so many artists and non-artists alike a renewed sense of hope and inspiration. People gravitate to him and his work for this reason. Besides being obviously due to his strong talent and high level of professionalism, his delight in spreading joy is another big reason that his artistic influence continues to extend itself far and wide.

All of his work embodies the expression of Fred's deep love for life. He often emphasizes that his purpose is to show the happy side of life. What a great example to us all on how to truly live! But don't be misled into thinking that such behavior is in any way a sign of weakness, which it definitely is NOT. This man is a Titan! His gentle and kindly ways arise from great inner reserves of strength, He has reached his mature years a very well-traveled man, a quietly sophisticated leader who is very highly respected by all his peers.